Note to the reader: Reading, understanding and implementing the following facts and guidelines is the necessary beginning of the survey. So let's be thoruogh with all the following points. Read on!
Facts:
1. We are dealing with someone who is way smarter than us.
2. Firstly, they don't come close to 'survey people'.
3. Even if they come, they don't talk.
4. Even if they talk, they don't tell the truth.
5. Even if they tell the truth, when we go to the same place in future, it is difficult to match this truth with the kid who told it. Because- we may not remember his/her face, he/she may not be around, there may be many kids with similar names, etc. (Hence the need for photo/video.)
6. Peak traffic hours mean business to them. So they won't pay any attention to us then. (Hence we may need to pose as customers and make them talk to us as we buy their product.)
7. During non-peak traffic hours they may not be around!
8. They are extremely busy and do many things in a day! They normally don't have time for us.
9. Underestimating their abilities is a famous mistake.
1. We are dealing with someone who is way smarter than us.
2. Firstly, they don't come close to 'survey people'.
3. Even if they come, they don't talk.
4. Even if they talk, they don't tell the truth.
5. Even if they tell the truth, when we go to the same place in future, it is difficult to match this truth with the kid who told it. Because- we may not remember his/her face, he/she may not be around, there may be many kids with similar names, etc. (Hence the need for photo/video.)
6. Peak traffic hours mean business to them. So they won't pay any attention to us then. (Hence we may need to pose as customers and make them talk to us as we buy their product.)
7. During non-peak traffic hours they may not be around!
8. They are extremely busy and do many things in a day! They normally don't have time for us.
9. Underestimating their abilities is a famous mistake.
10. Past experience says that they may all actually go underground if they get to know that someone's out to survey them. (Hence the need for secrecy!)
11. Looking at the above facts, it must be clear that surveying them is not a trivial thing, and most certainly, not a one day activity.
Guidelines:
1. Carry camera phones/cameras, as far as possible. And obviously, pen and papers and anything more that you can think of, which would interest kids. Chocolates and biscuits would be helpful.
2. Make sure that the prerequisite briefing is understood very very clearly. Feel absolutely free to ask as many questions as we like during the briefing. Without understanding this briefing, none of us would be able to conduct a fruitful survey.
3. We'll be given SSA identity cards, which are not to be displayed on person. These cards are for our safety and are to be kept safely inside our bags/pockets.
4. After the briefing, we will be divided in smaller groups and assigned a particular locality and then it'll be time to move to the assigned locality. Make sure that one group does not at all interact with other group.
5. While at our assigned locality, do not interact with traffic police, do not let anyone know that we are surveying street children.
6. Do not pose as typical survey people, with a pen and chart and writing pad! Just try to look like normal weekend visitors.
7. Try to interact with street children at the best of our interactive skills. Some ideas- Buy the things they are selling and ask question (e.g.- why should I pay so much, what's the guarantee that your stuff is good, where do you make it, how, I want to order it in bulk for a party, etc). Take them along to have tea/snacks. Offer chocolates/biscuits. Attract them by showing some interesting things (camera, cellphone, creative artefacts, or whatever one can think of).
8. One idea- One volunteer from the group may interact while the other can note down the details discreetly, so that the kids don't get alarmed and go away.
9. Try to take photos/videos to solve the problem of matching a kid with the information that he/she provides. Even a 4 seconds video capturing face and name of the kid would be sufficient. We can then note down all the information against the name captured in the video. We may record the entire interaction, if possible! If the kids refuse to be photographed, let them do some photography with our camera, let them capture their friends'/siblings' photos and vice versa!
10. The questionnaire provided to us is for our reference. Study it properly and try to remember it. We need to fill in all the details mentioned in the questionnaire. But we need not do so in the exact order or format WHILE interacting with a kid. We should interact based on what the kid is trying to say, while keeping in mind the questionnaire. We may note down main points from the kid's narrative quickly on a blank paper, and once the interaction is over, fill in the questionnaire.
11. Write down the approximate total number of street children that we get to see in our assigned locality.
12. Our aim, is not to cover as many kids as possible, but to cover as much correct information as possible. Even if we end up finding nearly everything about one kid, we've already done a good job!
13. There is no time constraint! So let's do it meticulously.
14. Try to be in the locality as long as possible so that the probability of finding kids increases. Also, this way, we may be able to note down more details about the daily schedule of kids, their lifestyle, etc.
15. Note that most depends on our creativity and style and interaction. So let's try our best! Let's get them talking!
16. Be careful. People in the street may create a scene, for various reasons. In such cases, contact the Cluster Representative of our locality, whose number will be provided beforehand.
17. In case we get some free time in between, we may- get refreshed, fill up the questionnaires nicely, look around for more interesting observations and pen them down, try to write down comments of the survey experience so far, try to deduct something from the data collected so far, discuss, try to bring in new ideas, etc!
18. If the kids ask you why you're doing what you're doing, try to say things like- “I do such things every weekend. / I like talking to kids. / I'm waiting for someone and hence passing time chatting with you kids. / etc.”
19. At the end of the day, interested people can have dinner together, or go home. But no matter what we do, let's keep our eyes open for street children, not only for the day, but forever!
20. Note again that this kind of survey is not a one day activity. It's a process. So here's a word for those among us who are more interested in this activity- We really really need to keep going to the assigned locality till the time we find out all the details required, of all the kids. This may take a month. Every weekend we may spend 2hrs on this (we may fit these 2 hrs during different sections of the days, so as to get different glimpses of their lives). Just that, every time we do so, we need to submit the data to Pankhudi volunteers. Such long term volunteers will be issued certificates of active and persistent participation by SSA+Pankhudi.
21. All the data will then be analyzed and a plan of action will be finalized based on the analysis and then the plan will be executed, as per available resources. So let's help make a difference to Pune's street life!
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